Lesson 3: Japan in the Interwar Years

Chief of Naval Staff (quote)

"If there were no war, the fate of the nation was sealed. Even if there is war, the country may be ruined. Nevertheless a nation which does not fight in its plight has lost its spirit and is already a doomed nation."

Racial Equality Clause

A clause proposed by the Japanese in the League of Nations in order to prevent racial inequality.

Matsuoka's document

A document in which Yosuke Matsuoka laid out the plans that he believed Japan's foreign policies should be like.

ABD Encirclement

A nefarious combination designed to deprive the Japanese of the resources they needed. This was carried out by the United States, Britain and the Dutch.

Meiji System

A system in which the government gave power to a small group of nobles and former samurai. The goal of this government was to make Japan a democratic state with equality among all its people.

Japanese Empire

Colonies included Korea, Taiwan (or Formosa), the Southern half of Sakhalin Island, the Kwantung Peninsula, and the South Sea Islands. These were all acquired as a result of victories Japan won in the three wars fought between 1894 and 1914: The Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the First World War.

Anti-Comintern Pact (1936)

Created by Germany and Japan with the intent to combat Russia, who hindered process of expansion.

East vs West (mentalities)

Democracy and freedom vs Utilitarianism

Imperial Conference

In which officials met to ratify a document titled "Essentials for Carrying out the Empire's Policies" Its contents showed that military leaders had concluded that the Washington talks would not be successful, and were prepared to go to war. The "main points" were that Japan would complete its preparations for war in the interests of self-defense and self-preservation, and to that end would not avoid war with the United States and Great Britain.

Nippon vs Nihon

In which the pronunciation of Japan in Japanese should be changed to give the word more force and dignity.

Japan (After WWI)

Japan emerges as a great power, but seeks equality at an international level. It then proposes the Racial Equality Clause in the League of Nations but the West denies it.

Economic Development

Japan hoped to develop an integrated economy in which she would provide the colonies with capital and technology in return for supplies of foodstuff, raw materials, and lucrative opportunities for investment.

Hideki Tojo

Japanese soldier and politician who became Minister of War in July 1940 and then Prime Minister in October 1941, shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He resigned in July 1944, following Japanese defeats, and was tried and executed as a war criminal in 1948.

US-Japan relations

Japanese wanted the United States to resume trade commodities of strategic importance, and the Americans wanted the Japanese to indicates some sort of schedule to withdraw from China (to correlate with the policies in document "Essentials for Carrying out the Empire's Policies."

Chinese Options

Some supported advocating establishment of a substitute Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-Shek's long time rival Wang Ching-Wei until he was forced to surrender, while others supported a prolonged occupation of the area Japan already held.

Co-Prosperity Sphere

Sphere of influence set up by Japan in Asia in the late 1930s. The idea was to demonstrate to other Asian states that they would all benefit from the Japanese domination of the region through building an integrated economic bloc, but the system was designed chiefly to benefit Japan.

Japanese Military Strategy

The intention was to convert the colonies into defense outposts of the empire as well as springboards for expansion.The War in China and the Pacific War demonstrated that Japan was able to obtain this goal.

Emperor Hirohito

The last traditional emperor of Japan. He oversaw Japanese expansion in the 1930s and agreed to war with the United States in 1941. In 1945 he announced Japanese surrender but remained in office as a constitutional head of state.

Imperialism

The motion of conquering land and people in order to increase a country's resources and power.

German Victories (in Western Europe)

These victories created a power vacuum in the Dutch and French colonies in Southeast Asia and impelled attacks on these resource-rich areas.

Southern Strategy

This strategy prevailed only because the conquest of the rich raw material and oil resources of south-east Asia was regarded as the vital prerequisite for any further extension of the Japanese Empire.